meanwhile PM goes subscription…
writing is in the wall
“Industry trend” is an interesting term. I guess that’s what it is, but perhaps the industry were responding to the trend of people wanting to pay less for software (principally this began in the App Store for iPhones, but has certainly spread).
There was a time you couldn’t buy any piece of software for less than about USD$15, or USD$30 for something half decent that did more than one simple thing.
I think there is no real problem with subscription pricing subject to the terms of the subscription. Adobe lock you in for a whole year and then take the software away when you stop paying. Compare this to others who charge month by month and leave you with fully functional software, which is really not so far removed from “pay up front”.
I think the treatment of “subscriptions” as a ‘dirty word’ is overly simplistic for what is a complex dynamic of business incentives, customer needs, and a whole range of different possible terms of the deal.
Fully agree. I think that subscription is a pricing model that can help both the subscriber and the provider. Mutual benefit is nice, but entirely depends on the conditions.
which software ? in LR take away part of functionality of software essential for raw conversion… some parts continue to work… of course an approach when after a certain amount of subscription payments you can convert your current downloaded binaries to a perpetual license w/o any further upgrades is better ( even w/o any further support for bugs, etc )… but it is all peanuts… on my side I am more concerned about what happens when / if company goes out of business and you can’t reinstall / reactivate your “perpetual” stuff ( or company still in business but simply decides not to support old activation and kills old activation servers ) because no activation servers are working… that calls people to think about {self censored} - which in fact had to be legalized so that any company looses all relevant rights and recourses if they stop providing activation for legally purchased perpetual licenses for any reasons or make in unreasonably difficult for customers
i don’t think they will overwrite the current v6 from your computer like some software does, so you can keep it installed in case of but it’s going to work as long as your machine can run it then it will become useless with no support.
my main concern is how much they will charge for the subscription.
the point is about reinstall and reactivate…
I am avoiding subscription model software as I prefer to buy a version and use it. If an upgrade is worth it, I will pay the upgrade price.
Subscriptions to me seem to often be offering less for more £ over the long term. So if everyone goes subscription, they won’t all be making more money. Instead consumers will need to choose more carefully between software and more vendors will go bust.
A few suppliers offer the ideal solution of a high one-off price for a given major version OR a lower subscription model which is ongoing and covers all updates.
debatable… just like w/ non subscription you can go bust if you don’t deliver 
… in both cases survival of the fittest ( that includes being able to swindle people with marketing bs )
True. I think Photoshop has become cheaper via the subscription. Almost everything else I use has become more expensive.
Though with Photoshop, the feature trickle for my own use cases has meant that if it were still a buy-once-per-version, I would not have upgraded for quite a while.
Your point about being able to send a message by voting with your wallet is also valid. The speed of upgrade shows how valuable the upgrade is to me. Synium always add something useful. Lemkesoft I support because I value the software.
I am old enough to have seen good companies change or be bought and lose their way. So I do find that is nice to be able to send that message.
in Adobe’s case it is a bundle - so it is free with LR ( you also get ACR , Bridge )… or for some PhotoShop, LightRoom and Bridge come free with ACR (CameraRaw) … I use ACR not LR for example - unlike DxO PL you have to import raws to LR library in explicit manner, can’t stand that - you can’t invoke LR as a single raw processing app from a 3rd party app - that is what I care about in the first place
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Another one bits the dust. I suppose the good news is that with all the subscription nonsense around, there is room left behind for other companies that would normally not get a chance to access market, and this also is true for open source products. I don’t know what is best alternative in the market niche PhotoMechanic was fulfilling but, keep your eyes open. The trend in many areas was that new companies and software, especially open sources started to appear.
By the way, does anyone have any experience with image ranger.
This is a perennial problem of the software business no matter what the business model.
Again, it all depends on the vendor. There are ‘sell once’ vendors who provide regular free upgrades to functionality and subscription vendors who do little, and also the opposites of both.
There is no perfect model for everybody. Not for all vendors, and not for all users. I prefer to choose what I spend money on by the value proposition it provides me and not whether it has the word ‘subscription’ or not.
that is why I am “more concerned”
I can understand this step when it comes to Camera Bits and PM. It has been too good really until now.
We have had no major new version upgrade since PM Plus 6 was released in 18 March 2019!!! This is five years the next March. Time rushes by - I thought it was three!
None major new release but many many service upgrades. They have been so into polishing this product that thay have neglected the business I guess.
So it might be a little unfair to compare this with DXO, CO or Adobe. DXO might manage because they force us not just to upgrade one program but two the last years by placing nice to have functions in Filmpack. DXO has become expensive. Despite that DXO won’t be able to compete without a steady flow of money influx like the others have. I think it is too much of a disadvantage to let a situation like that just go on for ever,
I’m not all that worried really because a metadata tool like PM is far more future proof than many ither software since it’s fully XMP-based.
We don’t need to think of anything at all until the version 6 might get uncompatible with a new Windows- or Mac OS-version.
Unlike Capture One they will not offer any perpetual alternative. It is a very small company that says they don’t have the resources to manage several different business models. Might be true.
I have suggested Camera Bits to develop a Pro version of Photo Mechanic that should be able to tie XMP to any file type like real DAM-softwares can and also make the PM schemas extensible like in real DAM-solutions where you can add both your own namespaces and data-elements.
Most of the infrastructure in PM is allready there!
That could broaden their market substantially and there are many photo business that would embrace a product like that which would be able tonorganize not just images but even Office-documents and PDF-files for example. I have seen other phote centric companies walking the same way successfully.
I wish them luck whatever way they will take in the future.
Since I also use the free XnView I think I will donate as a Christmus present to them. I want them too to survive in the long run because even they make a very good job without caring enogh maybe about the business sustainability.
only alternative to PM that i know would be FastRawViewer, which also does a good job
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PM is a culling machine for big shooters, to import and trim that load of images that other software would take over twice the time to import than what PM can achieve, not sure why you comparing PM to DxO, C1 and Adobe other than maybe the “plus” version
I might be wrong on this one, but i think they made the 6plus when people were looking for an actual cataloging system other than Lr and C1 few years back, as many were complaining about Adobe going subscription and if you don’t pay for Adobe subscription you loose access to your catalog, and for C1 well… many can’t afford it.
FRV works faster with raws that PM to view them, the only point of PM is to do metadata editing - that is the only point which still makes sense … and certainly if you are a long time user and get addicted to it, but for selecting just based on what is in the raw image you totally do not need PM whatsoever, FRV does it all batter for a fraction of price
Looks very promising and affordable. I might give it a shot. Reminds me of ACDsee also known to be fast raw viewer that does not need indigestion, and I’ve used it some years ago for wedding work, 5000+ photos to look at fast. Worked very well. Never liked Lightroom and propitiatory tagging and catalog system plus indigestion process. Always liked open and browse and use old school folder structure for organization that is application agnostic.
or may be they simply can’t do anything radically better, so polishing is the only thing left … that spells what you will get - the same polishing just now you have to pay them
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there are only 2 things left for them to ADD on top of what they polish to justify subscription - migrate to be a full-blown DAM and/or migrate to be a full-blown raw converter… DAM space seems to be less crowded.